opinion What does it mean to have a Trademark ?

[Michael Ehrhardt]

What does it mean to have a Trademark ?


Very simple :


A Trademark can be national or international

You can register a TM for different nice classes

A Trademark can be a word mark or a word figurative mark


this doesnt mean you own the domains if you have a TM


Every TM can be cancelled
Every TM should be cancelled


For example :


Apple


there are 467 results for Apple TM,s and these are not all by Apple Computer !!!


https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/trefferliste


so if your business is related to apple and you have a TM

you still can own or register apple domains


you also can apply to cancel a TM ( up to your budget ) give it a try for just 300.-$

i am fighting the german olympic team ( Thomas Bach - President of the Olympic Games )
because they have a TM for the slogan ( Wir für Deutschland ) since 2012
this is my slogan ( online-shop) since 6 july 2010


My opinion is :


nobody should have a TM

first come first save

i found these information at the german Trademark department
if you need help i can translate that

 

[Hypersot]

I'm not sure I understand what the thread's question is,
-is it 'what does a TM mean'?
-is it 'do we even need TMs'?
or is it a thread to condemn trademarks' existence?

if that answers the question,
I do believe TMs should exist. Since most people don't respect other people's work and brands there is this kind of law to enforce that.

Of course, there are a lot of times that people try to get advantage of the TM laws (like trying to TM exclusively a very common word) but usually that fails .. just see how many common word TMs say 'failed' or 'inactive' or 'cancelled'

I hope I understood your question and my answer made sense
Thread still needs a fine tune though, to make it easier for people to understand what is it you're asking.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

My Point :

you can not have exclusive rights on Apple ( Banana Citron Donuts Elephant or Facebook ) or whatever

that,s generic terms !

all these TM,s can be cancelled
all these TM,s should be cancelled

 

[Hypersot]

but, they don't have exclusive right over the generic use of 'apple' only for whatever they have registered their TM on.
Surely they can't cancel the TM. How a company can protect their brand from misuse?

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

but, they don't have exclusive right over the generic use of 'apple' only for whatever they have registered their TM on.
Surely they can't cancel the TM. How a company can protect their brand from misuse?

there should be better way to register a domain
like to register a car

i guess we are smart enough to find good alternates

 

[enlytend]

What does it mean?

It means that legally the mark has been determined to represent a unique source of the class(es) of goods and services for which it was registered.

Classes are key.

You can't register a word for the class corresponding to its generic meaning. You can't register "Apple" to sell apples. You can register it for electronics because apple (the fruit) has nothing to do with electronics. You could register "elephant" to sell pizza. You could register "airplane" for a financial services company. Used that way, it's no longer generic.

It's fine for someone else to use those terms to sell apples, elephants or airplanes, not electronics, pizza or financial services.

 

[frank-germany]

a trademark means that you can successfully prevent other people in the related country to use a trademark that you registerd for a certain group of uses

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

QUOTE="frank-germany, post: 5481121, member: 978948"]a trademark means that you can successfully prevent other people in the related country to use a trademark that you registerd for a certain group of uses[/QUOTE]


there are TM,s which are international
if you trademark something , it means you want a monopol

the point is :

apple can,t be trademarked ( it should be cancelled )
it is just wrong

in my case

i am fighting the german olympic team because they trademarked the slogan :
Wir für Deutschland in April 2012
i open an online shop ( Wir für Deutschland ) 6 July 2010

so if i want to print stamps or whatever the post office tells me i can,t because the olympic team has a TM

what is wrong on this ?
we had a settlement in 2014 and they told me : you can use Wir für Deutschland
BUT
i can't because the DOSB ( olympic team ) has a TM

the term DEUTSCHLAND has an absolutely ,,Schutzhindernis,, with means you can,t TM this
but the olympic team got it
it means the TM department doest check it they just want make money

Thomas Bach the president of the olymic team ( now president of the olympic games ) is an
Schmarotzer ( parasit )

so guess what
i don't like TM,s and i will fight them

 

[Hypersot]

Just to make clear one thing,
you want to print stamps for fun or for profit?
that's where the line is drawn... ie. where money is

if you want to make money off a TM term , you need to come to an agreement with the TM holder so they get a slice off your earnings (if they allowed it at all)

Personally, I don't see what you see wrong in all of this.
I would understand if you wanted to print stamps or shirts and give them for free to help your country in the olympic games and that organization stopped you from doing it but if we're talking about profit then I see nothing wrong in how the system currently works.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

ok

now very simple

you have an idea ( 2010 )
you invest a lot of money ( 50k euro )
you try to get a TM but the department tells you you can't ( Schutzhindernis ) ( protection obstacle )
you go to an lawyer try to get an TM even they tell you you can't ( i tried 3 different lawyer )

than comes the olympic team 2012 ( supported from the government with 150 million euro )
they use the exact same slogan like you do
they get a TM !

so what is wrong on this ?

when i got my idea it was for Sport , Politic and merchandising

when we had the settlement , they told me i can use the slogan
this TM forbid me to use my own slogan

 

[Hypersot]

That is a special case Michael. Sorry to say that, most probably, you won't find the answer or the solution here :/

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

That is a special case Michael. Sorry to say that, most probably, you won't find the answer or the solution here :/

i know
but it is always good to learn
thx
i had a meeting with Horst Seehofer ( second man in germany ) but they don't care

 

[poweredbyme]

I think TM claims should be possible only if something has no meaning other than a commercial brand. (eg, pepsi, seiko, toyota and so on)